Inquiry acts on tackling today’s drugs’ culture

A House of Commons select committee chairman has admitted keeping pace with new psychoactive substances (NPS) is “increasingly difficult” as a short-term inquiry launches into how they evade laws on drugs.

Home Affairs Select Committee Chair Keith Vaz, in announcing the investigation, is determined to see whether proposed legislation will effectively “shape” tackling the production and distribution of the existing and new chemicals constantly coming on to the market.

Following plans announced in the Queen’s Speech to ban NPS, which change brain functions and result in mood swings, the committee inquiry will look at steps the Government should take to educate groups affected by the ban.

It will also examine what specialist treatment is available for users and whether law enforcement agencies have the necessary powers and resources to implement the legislation.

The committee’s work is intended to inform the Commons stages of the passage of the Psychoactive Substances Bill, due in the autumn.

Mr Vaz said: “It has become increasingly difficult to keep up with the generation of new psychoactive substances that are constantly being developed, often expressly to evade drug laws, and freely available on the internet and on the street.

“While these drugs are described as legal highs or even natural highs they can be extremely damaging to people’s physical and mental health, or even lethal, and all the more so because each new substance is a totally unknown quantity, untested and uncontrolled.”

He added that the committee needed to know whether the shaping of new laws can effectively tackle drug production and distribution and “what further measures will be required to support that and really make it work.”

The committee wants written submissions on these issues by Wednesday, September 2.